Frozen french fry dispensers are known in the art. An example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,282,498 issued to Cahlander et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,847 issued to Cahlander et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,918 issued to Cahlander et al. Each of the foregoing patents discloses a french fry dispenser which includes a main storage bin, a device for moving the fries from the main storage bin into a secondary location, a means for holding the fries in the secondary location, and a complex apparatus for moving empty cooking baskets into position under the secondary storage location.
While the disclosed dispenser automates the process of dispensing frozen articles and has been successful in the marketplace, there are several areas in which the dispenser may be improved. First, the complex apparatus used for automatically moving the plurality of baskets into position under the secondary position is often not needed and/or desired by the end-user. Further, in such instances, providing such a device introduces unnecessarily complex and expensive equipment into the dispenser. Second, the manner in which the disclosed apparatus determines the weight of the articles to dispense does not provide highly accurate results (e.g., dispensing by time and by volume may be non-linear based in part upon the articles dispensed).
Therefore, there arises a need in the art for a simplified dispenser which is capable of dispensing a plurality of articles from a main storage bin into a receiving bin, and then into a manually placed basket for subsequent cooking. Such apparatus should also provide for accurate weighing by taking into account differences in the individual dispenser and articles dispensed and which over time learns to account for such discrepancies.